For several generations, new mothers who cannot breastfeed had a ready, if not ideal, replacement — infant formula. Today, many of these mothers have another option — others' breast milk.
Arkansas Public Media spent many hours and days with new moms on the frontier of this sometimes charitable, sometimes commercial, community.
Sharing breast milk is unregulated, and some health professionals caution against it, or at least, against breast milk that isn't pasteurized.
But, as one mother put it, the benefits simply outweigh the risks.
Listen to Arkansas Public Media's 30-minute documentary, Feeding Baby Hannah: Human Milk Sharing in Arkansas, and please tell us what you think.
For the full feature news story and suplemental material of other mom's speaking of their experience visit "Breast Milk, Elusive For Some New Moms, The Focus of Facebook Groups, Sales Sites."
This story is produced by Arkansas Public Media. What's that? APM is a nonprofit journalism project for all of Arkansas and a collaboration among public media in the state. We're funded in part through a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with the support of partner stations KUAR, KUAF, KASU and KTXK. And, we hope, from you! You can learn more and support Arkansas Public Media's reporting at arkansaspublicmedia.org. Arkansas Public Media is Natural State news with context.
Reporter and Host, Bobby Ampezzan Co-Producer, J. Bradley Minnick Music, The Damsels in Distress Mastering, Michael Heavner
